Hey Hills, I Got Something For You

Hey hills, remember me?  I'm the guy whose butt you kicked last Monday

But I came back...and got beat on again.  Just not as bad.  Felt much stronger; shaved over a minute off my time; and only needed one walk break instead of three.

I can build on this.  I've talked a good game before, but I really feel like I have momentum back.  To test the hills again next Monday.

'Sup?

Fog Running

We ran 6 miles today in 1:35. It was about 40°F, misting, and very foggy and damp, so it was tough to dress for.  I broke out a new piece of equipment, a very light Brooks jacket that crumples and zips into a tiny ball inside its own pocket for storage.  It's a piece of gear that is of limited use since it doesn't provide much worth, but it did keep me dry-ish until I took it off at about mile 4. 

Because it fits into a pocket easily, it'll be a good choice for the first few miles of a cool Fall or Spring long race.

I'm feeling good as far as being ready for the Shamrock Half and I'm doing well at establishing a habit of lifting again.  I can't let myself lose momentum again.

A New Hope? (Has that title been used before?)

Just because I have Bluetooth speaker shaped like the Millennium Falcon in the weight room, doesn't mean I can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

I did have a pretty good week, though.  Ran 5 miles last Saturday, hilly 3 on Monday, and a relatively fast two on Thursday; lifted Sunday, Tuesday, Friday (today).

It's a long year ahead...but I haven't yet succumbed to the power of the Dark Side.

Hills Suck. Awesome Gloves Do Not.

This was my run last night...and it kicked my butt.

The elevation chart just doesn't do justice to how grueling some of these hills are, particularly the last steep uphill starting at about mile 2.4.  I had been running this route in early summer and doing well, despite the heat, but I'd also been coming off a half marathon, not months of minimal running (not to be confused with minimalist running).

After a mild (to put it mildly) few weeks, this was the first REALLY cold night run in a long time for me..under 20 degrees, wind chill making it feel like the single digits.  I was breathing heavily by the time I hit the half-mile point (Chris and I have been using a Jeff Galloway-inspired walk-run plan, where we walk a minute after every half mile run) and since the next half mile was a steep, fun downhill, I just kept going, and made it up the first big hill, making the turn at the baseball field in Mt. Wolf, and taking my first walk break at 1.5 miles.  I took my scheduled walk break at 2 miles, and then DIED going up the last, steep hill, requiring two walk breaks in that last .6 miles to finish.  

My legs are sore today!  I bit off more than I could chew, and I was probably foolish to think that running five miles on Saturday had prepped me for a hill route this tough, but I think I'll run this once a week and hopefully feel myself getting stronger.

I did get to try out an awesome new piece of gear, though.  LED running gloves!  If only they played techno music to go along with the flashing colored lights, it would have been like a 3-mile, hilly dance party.

New Year, New Plans

Happy New Year from me and the rest of the EYD team.  2015 was a year with some good running accomplishments (The Wild Half) and also a lot of months during which I didn't get off my ass. (August, September, October, November, December)

I'm starting the 2016 off right, dusting off the weight bench (I lifted, too, after I dusted it off.) for the first time in longer than I can remember, and running 5 hilly miles with Chris through Mt. Wolf.

I have to get the miles in -- I'm signed up for a half marathon in March!  I would also like to do a fall marathon (which would probably be the NCR Trail Marathon) this year.  I've put off revenge far enough.  It's  time to come all the way back.

2015 was a great year with family and friends.  I got out of my comfort zone at work and I like my job and my company more than ever before.  There were many years where running gave me confidence to face the toughest client or the impossible deadline.  Now it's  time to take the momentum from the rest of life and channel that back to getting out on the roads.

It's a new year. Let's kick some ass.

The Rude Awakening

I had a good Spring.  Good showing at Sole of the City 10k, longest distances in years, and finally a "big race" finish at the Wild Half in May.

I had a bad Summer and Fall.  I just haven't had the willpower to make running a priority with the crazy hours I've worked and unlike 2011, I'm not coming off a great Summer.  I don't have that "cushion" of mileage that let me nail my long run even if it was my only run of the week.

So, while my wife was waiting to start her 13.1-mile leg of the NCR Trail Marathon Relay (her 11th half and 4th this year), I bonked on a three mile run that took me over the famed Mason Dixon line.

I will always be there cheering for Chris at the finish, but watching everyone finish made me want to be out there again.

I recall in 2010, when I ran the last leg of a marathon relay among people who were at miles 19-26.2 and feeling better than me.  It was just a bad day, but it made me realize I needed to train harder to run the half marathon that I was signed up for a month from them (I ended up w/a PR) and it made me really consider a full marathon for the first time. It was a rude awakening, and so was today.  Time to join a gym. Time to get out there after work, even if it's just a mile or two.  Time to push the "new" legs to the limit and see what they've got.

Time to be the runner I was before.

The Eye of the Tiger

I've spent 11 years of my careers at one of the leading sales effectiveness consulting companies in the world; a small company with a big impact in its marketplace and a highly-skilled team of which I am proud to be a part.  For most of my career,  I have been involved in development of customized training programs for our clients, but about a year ago, I moved into a specialized sales support role.

This week was my company's second national sales meeting of the year, and I came to it feeling like I needed to prove myself.  In our previous national sales meeting, in Boca Raton in January, I had been responsible for a portion of the meeting that, to put it mildly, was not well-received. I had written a series of training activities for our own sales force that very accurately mirrored their real-life client situations, but were judged to be very similar in focus to previous years' activities and not a good use of time.

At this Summers' meeting, I was asked to co-deliver a presentation introducing four new solutions. Although I have built credibility through my client and internal work, I felt like it was important for me to make a good presentation, especially with our new CEO; my new supervisor; a previous supervisor who has been a trusted mentor to me for many years; and of course our whole sales force present.

My problem?  Although I collaborate extensively with clients over the phone and less frequently in person but enough to be very confident, but I had somehow never had to deliver a PowerPoint presentation to a live audience, despite being almost 40 years old and having worked in the sales performance consulting world for 11 years with a 5-year "break" in the middle of that in knowledge management and sales support at a very large management and technology consulting firm, and I was definitely feeling out of my comfort zone.

I had a 9:00am presentation, the second of the day, and so I opened with a few jokes -- wrapped within a brief introduction of myself and my career for the newer executives and sales reps -- to warm up the room and diffuse some of my own nervousness.  I'll be honest, I brought the house down.  As I moved into the informative portion of presentation, I could definitely feel some nervousness returning, but I think I did well enough and I got a lot of positive feedback.  It's definitely something that I'm happy to have gotten through, and it will be less scary next time, but I know there's some for improvement:

1. I prepared my speakers' notes well in advance, but I wish that I had taken some time to practice in front of the room I would be presenting in.  I'm not sure if that would have been possible this time or not.

2. I need to make my slides less wordy, so that I can look to them to briefly remind myself of my place if I need to, but not have to either "wing it" in how I summarize or look at my notes (which I had on my Kindle) as much as I did.

3.  I had my speakers notes on my Kindle, as mentioned above, thinking I'd look a little cooler up there with a tablet rather than printed notes.  I think old-school note cards would have been a better option than either.

A friend gave me some delivery skills pointers that I think will help me do a better job next time in calming down my body language to both appear and help myself feel less nervous, but I think it was really good for a first timer.  The positive is that I felt exactly like I did when I was a 24 or 25 year-old junior consultant on needs assessment calls with clients.  This is now a situation where I'm completely comfortable and confident, and I know I can get there in my presentation skills as well.

And, last but not least, running.  I've not done well at getting enough miles in the July and August heat, but now that summer is winding down, it's time to get serious again.  I had a very good four-miler on Saturday, and I ran 3 miles on Tuesday morning (on the hotel gym treadmill due to pouring rain) and three miles yesterday with a coworker in downtown Philadelphia, heading from our Center City hotel down the Ben Franklin Parkway to the Art Museum and back.

Of course we ran up the Art Museum steps.  Adrian!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaadrian!